We predicted that the franchise power of ‘Underworld Awakening’ would take a bite out of the box office and it opened in the top spot with $25.3 million. It’s the second highest opening for the franchise with ‘Underworld Evolution’ still holding the record with $26.8 million. The big winner is Kate Beckinsale who has had a fantastic fortnight starring in two box office toppers – ‘Underworld Awakening’ and ‘Contraband’ – that should see her star power rise. Speaking of ‘Contraband’, it did well to stay in the top 3 and has racked up $45.9 million well ahead of its $25 million budget.

The George Lucas produced ‘Red Tails’ has been in production since 1988! A long development didn’t hinder the film and Fox will say it was worth the wait to the tune of $18.7 million. A good result considering it was only released in just over 2,500 locations compared to ‘Underworld Awakening’ that opened in 3,000. Fox will forever wonder how much of an impact those 500 extra locations may have had but keep an eye on ‘Red Tails’ to possibly hold next week. Average reviews may prevent that happening with the film holding a 34 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating but it could happen once the ‘Underworld’ franchise power wears off a little.

Losers
Tom Hanks has had a rough couple of years. When you take out ‘Toy Story 3’, his films have failed to make an impact and ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ came out of limited release hibernation to bag only $10 million. It’s on par with ‘Larry Crowne’ which opened to $13 million last year. ‘Angels and Demons’ was his last big hit in 2009 and it’s evident that despite his legendary status, Hanks isn’t drawing in audiences like he used to.

‘Haywire’ took a kick to the guts as a new entry in sixth place opening to $8.4 million. Director Steven Soderbergh’s action film opened in the same number of locations as ‘Red Tails’ but lacked the star power to generate any interest with former MMA fighter Gina Carano not proving to be a draw card. The supporting cast is full of well-known actors but Carano featured heavily in the films promotion and was the main attraction. Expect the poor performance of ‘Haywire’ to hinder its release overseas and possibly face a straight to DVD release in some territories.